One Minute to Midnight Read Online Free

to the opposing faction player and
vanished from view as the others followed him in.
    Once inside the dungeon, they grouped
together and began to run through like they had a hundred times
before. The difference with this run was that every monster they
battled disappeared before they could kill it.
    "What's going on? This game is
glitching all over the place. We have to put in a ticket with game
support, because this is BS." Scott growled.
"I don't pay twenty bucks a month to have the game freak out on me
when I'm trying to play, man!" Tony yelled.
    A minute later, as Tony
was in another window, lodging a complaint with game support, the
black castle faded around their characters and vanished. The
newscast was still on behind Willy. He turned and saw a young guy
with a tie and Members Only jacket standing in the street holding a
microphone.
"I don't know how to say this, but in the center of Baldwin Park, a
massive black castle has just appeared out of nowhere. There
are dragons flying around it, and there is a large monster in battle
armor standing at the front gate. He's got a scroll in his hands
and is beginning to read from it now. We'll try and get a closer
look."
    "Kal-El2, Abraxas, and DrDetroit! You
have been summoned to battle by the Lady Kalindora! She is goddess
of the spiders, heiress to the Kingdom of Pain, and will roast your
souls in eternal fire as you dangle from her iron web." The
creature speaking was a large pig-faced orc garbed in black chain
mail and steel plated armor. He rolled the scroll up, turned
around, and walked back inside the castle.
"Holy crap you guys!" Willy screamed. "Turn on the news…
now!"
    They each did as they were told, and
were just as dumbfounded as Willy. Real fear began to spread over
them, like the shadow of doom. They couldn’t believe what they were
seeing. Large black dragons soared above the city, and one came in
for a landing, perching nimbly on a tall winding spire. It reared
back its large spiked head and with a loud roar, belched out a long
column of flames, toasting the trees in Baldwin Park. Several
people burst into flames as the dragon aimed his fury at the
ground. Screams of terror rang out as the town people, now dressed
in medieval peasant garb, ran for their lives.
    "What's going on?" Tony
asked.
    "I have no idea, but I think we're all
experiencing the same hallucination." Scott said.
    "We need to meet up, and since Willy,
I mean Abraxas, is in the middle. We should group up there." Scott
said.
    "Alright Kel-El2, I mean Tony. I'll
see you over there in a few minutes." Scott said.
    "Listen guys, I have no idea what's
happening to us right now, but we have to refrain from calling each
other by our character’s names. It's creeping me out, and it makes
us look like even bigger nerds." Willy said.
"I don't know why I did it. Something compelled me to use your
username. Uh guys… look down at your clothes. Has anything
changed?" Scott said.
    "Like what? Oh wow! This is
incredible! I look like my in-game character!" Scott
yelled.
    He was surprised to find himself
garbed in plate armor, but it felt lightweight considering the
thickness of the metal. The spaulders on his left and right
shoulders had been fashioned into the skulls of rams when they were
crafted, and wicked purple gems were inlaid in the eyes of each
skull. He could feel the wiry chain mail of the hauberk under his
chest plate, and when he stood and looked down he saw that his
plate boots were spiked at the toe.
    "Guys, I'm a tank… in real life! I
have a whole suit of armor on, just like in game." Scott
said.
    He felt his pulse quicken and the
blood rushing through him as his excitement grew. Scott's change
was not merely external. He could feel his strength increase as
well, as if he could run through solid stone walls. He turned and
saw a large double-sided axe and leaning against the wall next to
his bedroom. It had gleaming twin blades, and a handle that had
been constructed to look like a long,